June 2008
Who's counting?
Since we published the summer UDQ, we've heard we left out of print a few of your favorite things: lunch ladies, Parents' Weekend, WVUD-99.9FM. The list goes on. That's the beauty of UDQuickly — the list can expand indefinitely. Send us your favorite things. We'll start adding them to the UDQuickly 100+ Favorite Things site that, in coming months, will grow to highlight all the items found in print. My forgotten favorite? The echo chamber in front of the chapel. You know what I mean? (You know what I mean?)
My Old House: 304 Stonemill
With a cornhole set by the front door, the residents of this house are ready for summer fun.
Play to win
Though UD men’s lacrosse is 30 years old, it was only three years ago that its players decided to ignore their club team title and behave like real student-athletes – a term reserved for varsity sports.
They petitioned to join the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association, and once they did, they joined big. For the past two years, this team of 50 has appeared in the final fo
ur game of the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association Division 2 national tournament, held in Dallas every May.
“Now we have an opportunity to play toward something,” said former team president Brian Eisenhardt, a driving force behind the changes. “A handful of alumni have been back and seen a game and been blown away by what happened.”
So what happened? Players started paying dues to compete cross-country and now choose Saturday morning matches over late Friday nights. They’ve gained a faithful following, exhibited through the sale of UD lacrosse warm-ups and interest from prospective students.
Come see the transformation this fall during an alumni game and barbecue. But be warned, you may find it’s a whole new ballgame.
Badge of honor
When it comes to college applications, most students choose to procrastinate. Catherine Wagner, who starts her first year at UD in August, was no different.
“During the whole college process I was knitting,” she said, referring to the five months she spent crafting 35 scarves and 32 tote bags. It was an excuse to avoid college essays, she joked, and the way to earn her final Girl Scout recognition, the Gold Award.
The award, received by only 5 percent of eligible Girl Scouts in 2007, is based on executing a plan to solve a need in one’s community. Wagner, a resident of Hudson, Ohio, chose to serve the girls at the Youth Development Center, a detention center in Akron, Ohio.
“[The residents] just made a mistake in their lives,” she said. “I know they have the same needs as every other girl.” She sent Christmas cheer to every girl wrapped in a fuzzy scarf and lined corduroy tote bag.
As for her college applications, Wagner finally finished them. She’ll be studying biology at UD. There's also the possibility of continuing what she started in kindergarten, with the campus Girl Scouts. “It’s taught me leadership, creativity and community service.”
Business sense
After a year in business, Flyer Spirit employees are finally working out the store’s kinks. All it took was ordering the right T-shirt sizes, increasing staff communication and improvising … a lot.
The joint venture between the student-run Flyer Enterprises and the campus bookstore opened in August at 1200 Brown St. as an apparel and gift shop for local fans and alumni. Its student supervisors, eager with experience from food ventures like Stuart’s Landing, quickly realized this business was a whole lot different.
Ordering inventory started as a guessing game, admitted Keri Crist-Wagner, the only full-time non-student supervisor. Then, there was the matter of achieving effective communication, as simple as efficiently relaying phone messages to co-workers, said senior Sarah Lingo, president of retail. To do this, they established professional expectations for the staff, who “wants to take on extra responsibilities. They want to see us succeed like the managers do,” she said.
With their lessons learned, Flyer Spirit is geared up for what may be its busiest days to date: Reunion Weekend, June 20-22. Stop in and get your UD oven mitt and a matching cookie cutter. If you think a UD-themed mixing bowl would add to the set, suggest it to the staff. After all, Flyer Spirit is a work in progress.
Tee time
Finally, a good excuse to spend all day on the green with old classmates. (Admit it, you’ve been looking for one).
Sign-ups have begun for the second annual Flyer Classic Golf Outing, a fundraiser for the John R. Schleppi Career Enhancement Fund, Sept. 20 in Cleveland.
Only two years old, the fund was created by sport management students in Peter Titlebaum’s sales and fundraising class. It has grown into a $25,000 endowment with $1,000 awarded annually to one undergraduate to cover the cost of attending a professional conference. The next goal is to reach $50,000 and award two students the scholarship.
“This is supporting a student by letting them continue education further than books and the classroom,” said outing creator Josh Studzinski ’01.
Though the fund’s creators never knew Schleppi as a professor, they named the fund for him because of his influence on their college careers. In 1984, he was the first to teach sport management courses at UD. The program now has 300 alumni and 120 current students.
For more information about the outing, contact Studzinski at flyerclassic@yahoo.com or 216-235-1945. Alumni from as far as Boston and Charlotte, N.C., have already penciled in a tee time.
Solar lessons
Hola Toditas! In Sabana Grande, Nicaragua, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, family values and simplicity that I was lucky enough experience. This home was not connected to the electrical grid. Because of the help from Grupo Fenix, they were able to get a small 20V solar panel system in with only two lights. One was over the dinner table and the other in the grandparents' room. Every day I headed off to the Solar Center to work with the students. When I got home around dinnertime, I knew to be ready for a soccer game behind the house with the uncle and children until the sun went down.
I ate dinner with the whole family. It was prepared in a wood-burning stove without a chimney. Smoke could ventilate out the roof, but many times the kitchen was full of smoke — indoor air pollution. After dinner the whole family hanged out by the kitchen table. They talked, worked on homework and just relaxed. There was a TV, but it could be on only once in awhile because using the energy for light was more important. Every night the light slowly dimmed and then went out.
I was in awe — of the love shared by this family, of how welcome they made me, a complete stranger, feel. About 3 kilos of wood, 40 watt-hours of electricity, and 1 gallon of water is all they needed to get them through the day.
Siempre paz y amor,
Michael
Michael Vehar, graduate assistant for the ETHOS program, led 12 engineering students on a May breakout to learn about sustainability. In Nicaragua, they worked with Grupo Fenix, a renewable energy and sustainable development program, and stayed with host families in Sabana Grande.
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